Epidemiology

Myrna Weissman, PhD, Chief

The mission of the Division of Epidemiology is to reduce the burden of psychiatric disorders through research, education, and service. The research mission involves studying the risk of psychiatric disorders and related disability associated with genetic, social, and environmental factors and developing interventions and programs to reduce these risks. It also encompasses educating the public regarding mental health issues and informing policy.

Research methods cover a range of epidemiologic approaches and include genetic studies, clinical trials, clinical and community epidemiological surveys and secondary analyses of health care utilization data. There is strong interest in translating epidemiologic observations into more tractable forms in the basic and clinical sciences. A Conte Center grant and a study of 3-generations at high risk for depression searching for endophenotypes, exemplify this approach. A new mission is global mental health, including training and clinical trials in a number of African and Latin American countries. A new training grant in global mental health will begin July 2012. The education mission includes the training and development of students and young investigators. Numerous graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from different disciplines are part of the Division. The service mission involves providing service as advisors and consultants to health professionals, health organizations, and agencies at the state, national and international levels.